aonedoc

Dear Friends

I am coming to calgary next week in view of migrating. I have oppurtunities to work as family physician/GP in Airdrie and Okotoks.
Any suggestions which one is bettter.

Alberta_Rose

Hah! You'll be inundated with folks from each of those places all telling you their place is best and will you accept them as a patient!

Aidrie is not as popular as Okotoks, especially with Brits, it seems. Something about Aidrie seems to be lacking ... Identity? Character? It's a bit flat and featureless....

Okotoks seems like a nice town, well contained, and a good view of the mountains ..... I think I'd choose there, personally, if I had to choose between the two.

Airdrie is closer to the airport, and maybe closer to Calgary if you need to travel here often? In any case, I suppose you needn't actually live in the town where you work ....

You probably need to see for yourself really. Parts of SW Calgary, or the SE eg McKenzie Lake might be good to live if you work in Okotoks?

The Ross Family

aonedoc

Come to Okotoks we need more doctors here!

The Ross Family

danniek

Are you going to be requesting privileges at the hospitals? (Depending on if you are specialized or doing deliveries).

If you are, then you will want to keep proximity to the hospitals in mind.

Also, what do you and your family like doing for fun?

I dont think that choosing a town should be solely based on your intended profession.

The other thing to think about is whether or not you will join a practice or start a new one.

KJM

Okotoks as patients are waiting. Its a lovely town

Flossie and Jim

You will probably encounter more British patients in Okotoks, especially once word gets round

You might want to consider living on the outskirts of Calgary rather than within the community you are practising in unless you want to bump into your patients in town on a regular basis. They are fairly small populations by UK standards (Airdrie is approx. 30,000 and Okotoks about 20,000)

I have a (British) Family Doctor who lives in Cochrane but practices in NW Calgary. I was under the impression that it is a right old slog to get international doctor qualifications recognised in order to be able to practice in Canada, but she said it wasn't really that bad and that over here being a Doctor is more like running a business, plus you can pick and choose your patients and specialities if you want to e.g. some doctors will only accept new patients with certain conditions.

I guess that what a place looks like probably doesn't have any bearing on the nature of the practice or the type of people you will get as patients. Both places offer quite pleasant living environments and also there is the option of Calgary outskirts as I mentioned above. You just need to drive round when you arrive to get a 'feel' for the places in question e.g. check out Okotoks, Airdrie and some of the areas in the NW of Calgary (easy access North up the Deerfoot to Airdrie) and areas in SE/SW Calgary and some of the smaller rural communities south of the City for access south to Okotoks.

Good luck!

ali-simon

We prefer Okotoks and I am already registered so I'm not enticing you in order to get a doc. Okotoks we found is much more of a family community and loads for the children to do. Airdrie as another poster said, we found flat and bland. No offence to those that live there but Okotoks seemed to offer everything we were looking for.

Hope this helps. Any questions please dont hesitate to ask.

Good luck on your trip.

Getting There

We're sure the Airdrie folk will come along soon but again, Okotoks for us. It does have a bit more character about it. Our blog and Facebook group (links below) will give you a flavour of the place.

Kind regards,

Eamonn & Janet.
PS: You will get a full quota of patients in, let's see, about 5 minutes here ...but that's not just an Okotoks thing we're sure.

Butch Cassidy

CURRENTLY Okotoks APPEARS more popular with the brits. Airdrie used to (approx 2004) attract more brits, this changed (probably due to the influence of two Brit realtors who offered 'extra' services) around 2005/2006. The popularity of Okotoks is now enhanced (IMO) by the number of posters on BE who live in Okotoks and the extra exposure it gets.

As other posters have said I would chose Okotoks of the two. BUT it depends entirely on what you want out of live. As far as getting into Calgary is concerned there isnt much to chose between them (at least not if you're looking at hitting the DT core)

Come over on a Recce, look at them both, talk to the locals (both expats and 'cradle cannucks') THEN make your OWN decision.

stulec52

I'm from Near Airdrie in Scotland, and now live in Calgary. ( deep South)

The Airdrie here is much nicer than the Scottish one !
it's got all the things you would need in a community.
but it is split by highway2, which is kind of a pain.
traffic in there is a mess right now, they've been working on the roads in Airdrie for a while.

Okotoks has quite a nice charm to it.
+ the South end of town has a lot of new stores, and homes, and has easy/fast access to highway 2.

If you don't have a particular draw to any area with job, family etc, I would say Okotoks would be where I would go given the choice of both, and I have friends in both towns...

Although, if you suspect you would need to go into Calgary a lot, especially the airport, then Airdrie is closer.